


Teddy´s day out

by JosieCarioca



Series: The Toy Box [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Babysitting, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Sad and Happy, Severus Snape Has a Heart, mostly happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:40:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22041223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosieCarioca/pseuds/JosieCarioca
Summary: Andromeda is over the moon to find out she still has living relatives, and want to give Teddy an opportunity to bond with their new family. Unfortunately for Severus. that means he gets to babysit for a day.
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks & Original Female Character(s), Severus Snape & Andromeda Black Tonks, Severus Snape /Evelyn Black, Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Toy Box [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662841
Comments: 8
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

(requested by [VictoriaHolmesWriting](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoriaHolmesWriting/pseuds/VictoriaHolmesWriting))

Babies were very much a foreign, strange concept for Severus. He´d spent a significant part of his life around children aged 11 and up, but had virtually no contact with a human younger than that. Unless he counted the occasional visit to Lucius and Narcissa while Draco was still little.

He couldn´t say he really interacted with the younger Malfoy in any of those, usually rather brief, encounters. Lucius had chosen him as a godfather more as a matter of convenience than anything else, after all, so it wasn´t like any of the adults involved in the arrangement were too eager to make sure Severus was an involved 'member of the family' and spend quality bonding time with the little master of the house. It was safe to say, then, that Severus had close to no experience in dealing with small children. And he never felt like it was the type of skillset he would ever need in his arsenal of already limited social graces.

Evelyn on the other hand...She loved children in general and babies in particular. Which wasn´t particularly surprising. She had two nieces, and had been in their life from their birth, and was even godmother to the older one, Alice. She had helped her sister through countless nappy changes, bottle feedings and whatever else she could.

Evelyn also came from a large family on her mother´s side. While her father had no siblings, her mother had three brothers and a sister. That meant lots of cousins, and these cousins had children of their own. Severus could hardly keep track of all the names, and didn´t particularly care, but he knew the family was full of children, and Evelyn had at some point babysat for each and every child of each and every one of her cousins.

So, of course, when he finally had taken the steps to introduce Evelyn to Andromeda, little Teddy had quickly become the most popular topic of conversation for the two of them and the main reason for their immediate bonding.

Andromeda had been absolutely ecstatic at the discovery that she had surviving family.

Severus could hardly blame her, given her circunstances. She had then asked him to arrange a meeting, anxious to reach out and include Evelyn, her sister and the rest of the muggle Blacks in her and her grandson´s life, which Severus certainly understood. But that had posed a significant issue.

Evelyn was still in the first stages of getting acquainted with the very concept of magic and all that plethora of reprcussions that came with it. It had been a massive, and even somewhat traumatic, adjustment in their relationship.

Minerva had been the one to convince him that introducing Andromeda into the picture would improve things. And to his surprise, it did.

Severus had never been particularly close to Andromeda, even though they were in the same house. There was a bit of an age gap between them and they didn´t really frequent the same acquaintances, even if Andromeda´s two sisters were among Severus own 'circle of conections' (he wouldn´t dare call any of the relationships we cultivated at the time 'friendships'). But Andromeda was still a Slytherin and she had always been courteous to him, even more after the facts of his participation in the war had come to light, and she found out they had been on the same side all along.

So, out of the same spirit of common courtesy and house comraderie, and in hopes that she could help him ease Evelyn into the transition from not knowing magic existed to living with a wizard, he decided to introduce the two of them, They were cousins after all. Distant cousins, granted, but family, nevertheless. And Andromeda could use having something like am adult family member around again.

He wasn´t too surprised when the two women hit it off almost immediately. Andromeda was eager to know more about Evelyn and her relatives and had almost shed tears of joy in finding out there were two little girls in the family. It was a shame that it would take some time for Alice and Lizzie to be introduced to any of their magical relatives (although Severus suspected Alice may need an earlier introducitions soon, if some phenomena he had been observing were indeed what he thought they were), but Evelyn was more than happy to provide Andromeda with photos and videos.

Evelyn had been enormously conforted by the presence of somebody other than himself and Minerva who could walk her through the overwhelming amount of new information she had been constantly bombarded with since Severus had told her he was a wizard. The fact that Andromeda was grandmother to a lovely baby boy, barely two years old, was the icing on the cake. As soon as the initial shock of seeing Teddy´s hair change from light brown to neon green wore off, Evelyn was completely smitten with him.

Soon enough Evelyn and Andromeda were meeting on a weekly basis and whenver it was Andromeda who came over to their place she would bring Teddy with her. It didn´t bother Severus much. All he had to do was keep to himself and ignore the child, and since their presence made Evelyn happy he was actually willing to join their conversations sometimes.

Over time Evelyn started to get included in some of Andromeda´s little afternoon teas and sunday lunches with Molly Weasley as well. Severus didn´t mind that all too much either. Arthur was generous enough to provide him with some distraction whenever he happened to get roped into attending, and he rarely had to suffer the presence of any of their children. All the Weasley kids (which now seemed to include Potter and Hermione Granger) were off to mind their own business and lives, full grown adults the lot of them.

Mrs. Weasley was overjoyed to have people over (empty nest sydrome must hit one hard when the last of that many children moves out, Severus imagined), and Arthur jumped at the opportunity to have Evelyn ready at hand to answer his endless list of questions about muggle history, their daily life and habits. Severus wasn´t that eager to socialize with the Weasleys, but it wasn´t all that unpleasant altogher, as Evelyn, mercifully, was much more of a conversationalist than him. He had a slight suspicion that if not for Evelyn and Andromeda, dear Molly and Arthur wouldn´t have suffered his presence, so they were considerate enough to not expect him to be too engaged.

But now...now he was starting to wonder if it hadn´t been a mistake on his part to let himself get too comfortable with the whole arrangement.

It was a pleasant Sunday at the Burrow, and Mrs Weasley had decided it would be a lovely idea to have tea in the back garden so Teddy could play for a while in the mild late afternoon sun. The table was set outside for the adults and little blanket with some toys for the baby, who toddled around and played with Evelyn and Mrs Wesley as a breeze made the leaves fell all around them.

Then, Andromeda decided to bother Severus a bit.

“Evelyn is very good with kids, isn´t she?” she commented in a relaxed tone, sitting by the table where Severus and Arthur were having tea and talking about the latest news.

He looked up from the newspaper he´d been reading and watched as she sat down with her own cup of tea, casually reaching for a pastry on the neat table Mrs Weasley had set for them. He could hear Teddy cooing and giggling, and Evelyn and Mrs Weasley talking and fussing over him, just a few feet away.

Severus was not yet aware he was being set up.

“She is.” he replied, naively.

If he had bothered to look at Arthur´s bemused expression, he´d know he was walking right into a trap.

“She´ll make a fine mother one day, I´m sure.”

Andromeda had a sly little grin on her lips as she lowered her teacup and primly set it down on the saucer, her eyes sparkling with that kind of begnign yet ruthless brand of mischief so unique to mothers and grandmothers.

Then it hit him.

“She does have a way with children.” Severus trailed off, hoping that would be the end of it.

“I mean, she does want children one day, doesn´t she?...it would be a shame if...”

“We never really had this conversation” he let out, dully, before she could finish.

“Of course you haven´t” Arthur offered, mercifully, with a compassonate smile. “it´s a bit early for you two to be discussing children.”

As if summoned, and Severus did wonder wther it was a bit too perfectly choreographed, Molly approached the table, ostensibly to get Evelyn a piece of cake. If Severus didn´t know any better, he´d think some rehearsing had gone into her flawless timing.

“Too early for what?” she asked

“I was just telling Severus here how I believe Evelyn will make a wonderful mum one day, don´t you think?” Andromeda informed her, basking on Severus unease.

“Oh, she absolutely would. But dear me, it´s a bit too early for that, no?” Mrs. Weasley said, and Severus silently thanked her...until she continued. “They haven´t even started the wedding plans...yet.”

Severus´pleading eyes went to Arthur who simply shrugged.

“That´s true. You are making plans for that, aren´t you Severus?”

“Marriage is not something we have discussed, Andromeda.” his tone was more pointed now.

“You´re not stringing my cousin along are you?

“Excuse me, Andromeda, but...” he sat up, preparing a proper speech to let her know, with the proper amount of proper ettiquette, that his private life was, properly speaking, none of her bloody fucking business.

“Severus!” Arthur yelped all of the sudden “I entirely forgot. I just acquired a bottle of wormwood brandy and I´ve been meaning to get your opinion.”

“Sure, of course.” Severus breathed out, relieved, following Arthur back inside the house.

* * *

“You will forgive me if I don´t really have any wormwood brandy” Mr. Weasley told him when they were safely out of earshot “but you look like you can use a bit of regular old dragon barrel.”

“If you please.” Severus let out, taking a seat.

Arthur poured him a generous dose, which Severus downed in one gulp.

“Don´t mind that.” He smiled, pouring himself a glass. “They don´t mean anything by it.”

“Well, I surely hope Andromeda doesn´t go about trying to put ideas in Evelyn´s head.”

“I take that you really haven´t talked about marriage and...”

“Not exactly. I mean the only time we vaguely talked about it, Lyn all but said she doesn´t want to get married right now. She´s working on a new book, and she´s been invited to give semester course at Manchester University, the last thing on her mind is marriage and children.”

“Excellent, then carrry on carrying on, my lad. Don´t pay Andromeda any mind. She´s just excited about having Evelyn around, and maybe meeting more of the family soon. You must understand, she lost her daughter and Teddy is all she has... Maybe it´s the idea of adding to the family that has her like this. And Molly...well now that the children all moved out..”

“I suppose I get it.” Severus rolled his eyes and sighed, but to some point he did get it.

Severus could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Andromeda when her daughter died, leaving her with a grandson to raise, and no other family but an estranged sister. To this day Andromeda and Narcissa didn´t talk to each other, and he could only imagine how much it would help matters if Mrs. Malfoy were to discover they had muggle relatives. And that Severus was currently in a romantic relationship with one of them.

He still remembered how well Evelyn and Narcissa´s accidental first meeting had gone, so he could hardly imagine them having a nice chat over tea and crumpets and calling each other “cousins”. And as much as he liked Andromeda and wouldn´t mind that she considered him family in some capacity, he idea of being related to the Malfoys by marriage was not all that enticing.

When they returned to the table, Evelyn had taken her place, with Teddy hapilly bouncing on her lap. Mercifully the conversation seemed to have shifted to something else, but the moment Andromeda laid eyes on him, she decided it was time for round 2.

“That´s such a lovely offer, but I hope Severus won´t mind.” she said, turning to him

“I won´t mind what?”

“Well, Evelyn just offered to babysit Teddy for a day. But I would hate to be a bother.”

“She offered what?”

“Well, it´s no bother at all! I would love to have him all to myself for a while.” Evelyn beamed, playfully tickling and squishing the little boy´s belly, prompting delighted squeals from him.

“Sure...It´s no bother at all.” Severus let out, defeated.

* * *

“Why are you so bothered?”

“Did you really have to **offer** to take care of the kid? Like that?”

“Poor Andromeda deserves a day off, and is not like I haven´t done it before. Jesus, Severus, is not like WE haven´t done before, so what gives?”

They had. Once, for barely a couple hours, when a co-worker of Evelyn´s had nowhere to leave her daughter while she had an emergency doctor´s appointment. And little Sadie had blessedly slept all the time and Severus barely noticed she was even in the house. But Evelyn had just comitted to a full 24 hour period, smackdab on a Saturday. Andromeda would drop the kid off in the morning and come back for him the morning after.

“I can´t belive we´ll babysit Remus Lupin´s son. I swear if the man was alive he´d have a good laugh at my expense.”

“Severus, stop. It´s just a little baby. With technicolor changing hair...but just a baby.”

“Fine, but don´t even think of taking him for a stroll around the neighbourhood.”

“That´s a horrid thing to say.”

“Oh is it? Let´s take him to visit Fr. Thomas at the church then, maybe he´ll turn bright pink and give the good priest a heart attack. Orwe´ll get a good deal on an exorcism”

“Well, I didn´t think of...” knocks interupted her, and she almost hopped her way to the door “There they are!”

* * *

Severus eyed the toddler sitting on the playmat.

He had never noticed how much Teddt looked like his father. Then again, he had never bothered to truly look at that child. He was just this sort of shapeless little presence that happened to accompany Andromeda when she visited. He never bothered to interact with him much at all.

In fact sometimes he almost forgot that wasn´t just Andromeda´s grandson, but also Remus Lupin´s son.

Severus had received the news of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks´deaths with a mixture of indiference and bitterness. He didn´t care much at all for Lupin, but the thought that he, Severus, had outlived him didn´t bring him any joy. He had no love lost for Andromeda´s daughter either, but it seemed rather cruel senseless for her to die so young leaving a young child behind. It wasn´t something that was supposed to happen...again.

But when it came to their child, maybe because he didn´t have any personal or emotional recollection of the two of them as parents, Severus felt oddly detached. It was just a child. A healthy, happy child, that Evelyn had grown attached to, but he didn´t mean much to Severus.

Only now did he take a good look at Lupin´s child, running around on his short wobbly toddle legs and babbling cheerfully, using his limited vocabulary to have something that vaguely resembled a conversation with Evelyn. She was entirely taken with him. It was like everything else had disappeared the moment Andromeda had put that boy in her arms and left (not without giving Severus a petulant little wink).

It was odd, almost uncomfortable in a way.

Evelyn didn´t see that child in the same way he did, of course. She had never had the chance to meet his parents or create any kind of opinion about them. To her this was just an innocent child she happened to be related to, and being that he was family in her eyes and that she loved children she felt the urge to care and protect him.

As he watched her play with him, hug him, kiss his chubby cheeks, Severus felt mildly unnerved. The more he looked at Teddy the more Lupin he saw, and the more Lupin he saw, the more he remembered Lupin was dead, the more he wondered if he should have been dead as well.

Lily, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin...for some reason it felt like a joke in bad taste that he had to be the last one standing. To outlive all of them, and live with the memories of all that had been said and done between himself and the self-styled Marauders. That not only he had Harry Potter walking the earth the living embodiment of a part of his life he´d been desperately trying to let go, but to have Lupin´s son right there in his living room, as innocent as a child of two can possibly be, to remind him that maybe, just maybe, Lupin deserved to be alive more than he did.

Teddy Lupin had been in the house for less than an hour and Severus was already exhausted. Small mercies that he seemed moderately well behaved. But children that age, as behaved as they could possibly be, created noise and comotion merely by existing. At least Evelyn hadn´t asked for any help, nor did she seem like she would. She had it all under control, it seemed.

She had all but forgotten Severus existed. Which was a bit of a blessing. It allowed him to step back and disconnect from the entire situation and be left alone. He had almost believed he would get away with it even.

Eventually Teddy grew sleepy and there was silence, and Severus almost believed he would have peace finally. He probably should have suspected the short phone call Evelyn had gotten righ after she had put him down his nap was not a happy omen the moment she hung up the phone and, miraculously, seemed to remember he was in the room.

“So, are you planning on just sitting there with this book I know you´re not even reading all day?”

Evelyn walked to him with that cat like sway of hips she put on when she set out to break down his feigned blockage of indifference, and removed the book from his hands, sliding onto his lap.

“How do you know I´m not reading it?”

“You haven´t turned a single page in half an hour.”

“Well, it´s hard to concentrate with a child in the house.”

“Have you no shame?” she laughed “Teddy is all but a little angel.You´re being needlessly mean now.”

Severus didn´t want to admit, but she was right. Evelyn had played with him fed him, washed him after he ate and put him down for a nap, and Severus couldn´t say he had trully had his peace and quiet too terribly disturbed. Severus looked over to the neast little nest of blankets and cushions Evelyn had made on the sitting room floor, where Teddy was peacefully sleeping on his belly, one tiny little hand clutching at a plush toy lion.Yes, he was quiet all right.

“I need you to do me a favour, though” she continued. “Angela just called, her car broke down, and she needs a lift back home. Can you watch Teddy for a little while I go rescue her?”

“Wait, what?”

“It won´t take long, it´s a Saturday, there´s barely any traffic. I´ll pick her up, drop her off at home and be right back.”

“But...”

“Teddy won´t even wake up before I come back. And if he does just entertain him.”

“Entertain him!?”

“He´s been fed, he´s clean, he will be well rested afts his nap. Just entertain him. You can do that.”

“Unless he wants to talk about the subtleties of potion making or discuss effective strategies to counter curses, then I don´t see how I can possibly 'entertain' him.”

“Well, he might like those thing, you don´t know. Try! maybe you´ll find something in common.” she laughed softly before giving him a kiss and getting ready to leave.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus gets to spend some quality time with Teddy and it gets him thinking....

There wasn´t much Severus could do when Evelyn said she was going to do something. She just went ahead and did it. So, after announcing she was going to pick Angela up and telling Severus to watch Teddy for a while, out the door she went and there was nothing left for him to do but resign to his role as substitute nanny.

If he was to be honest, there wasn´t much he could offer to counter her argument that “everything was going to be fine”. It wasn´t like what she was asking was impossible or even difficult, actually. Teddy was sound asleep on his playmat. What could possibly go wrong? He wasn´t the first nor would he be the last adult left in charge of a small child.

What was the worst that could happen?

And yet, Sseverus looked at the sleeping toddler with the same anxious trepidation he would have looked at a cauldron full of exploding potion left in the care of a first-year student on the first day of class.

Once alone in the house, Severus decided his plan of action was to be as quiet as humanly possible and hope Teddy continued to sleep until Evelyn was back. The cats seemed to agree. Ciáran was curled up on his usual spot by the fireplace, something he did even in the summer months when they didn´t light it. Creature of habits, he was. And Godiva, well, after investigating the little boy for a while, she had quickly lost interest and gone off to play with her toys on the corner of the living room.

“Good.” he thought “If everything stays exactly like this I have nothing to worry about.”

Solid plan.

Nothing to worry about. Nothing whatsoever.

Severus could go back to his chair, back to his book and just...be there. That was all he had to do, Be there, close enough to be able to tell Teddy was still asleep and breathing. Easy. He could keep a child alive and reasonably unharmed. He had some level of experience in that.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Severus was not in the habit of dozing off while reading a book. He truly wasn´t. If anything, reading kept him wide awake most nights. He´d read till day break if a book was interesting enough, and that happened with quite some regularity.

But somehow he did it. He dozed off. It just happened. He had no idea how long he had slept, it could have been ten minutes it could have been two hours, but when he woke up Teddy wasn´t on the playmat.

Severus may or may not have experienced the world´s tiniest heart attack right there and then.

He jumped from his chair and looked around. No baby, no Evelyn.

Calm down, he thought. This isn´t a movie, is not like the kid crawled out of the back door. The back door! Had he closed it!? First things first, he had to check the backdoor.

“What the...” The moment he stepped into the kitchen, Severus felt something fine and powdery under his feet before they slid from beneath him and he hit the floor.

Whatever white substance it was, it was in the air.A podery white mist. Covering...everything.

Flour, he realized, spying the open bags (not one, not two, three!) by the kitchen cabinet.The whole kitchen was covered in white flour layed on thicker than snow in mid-January. The culprit was right before Severus, sitting on the floor in his nappy, giggling like there was no tomorrow as he kicked the flour with his tiny little feet as if it was sand on the beach. Teddy looked up at him and smiled, almost as if telling him 'Look what I did, isn´t it beautiful!?'

Severus begged to differ

“How the devil did you do this!? And where are your clothes!?”

He regretted it the moment the words left his lips. He knew it had been too loud. Teddy pursed his lips and his eyes started watering, and Severus saw the world slow down around him.

“No, no, no, no, don´t...”

The boy unceremoniously screeched his discontent and dismay loud enough that Severus expected his eardrums to burst. How in the hell could such small lungs produce that volume of sound was entirely beyond his comprehension. And not only that, Teddy made sure to provide the visual display to go with his concerto for one voice: his hair was wildly, rapidly changing colors like a manic kaleidoscope.

“Merlin gracious, kid, you make a Mandrake sound like Freddie Mercury.” Severus got upawkwardly and picked Teddy up from the floor, trying to keep him at arms lenght to avoid both the sheer volume of his crying and getting any more flour on himself. A silly notion all together. Not only had he fallen flat on his arse, there enough flour in the air around them thatSeverus´ black t-shirt and dark jeans has changed colors. Al Pacino´s Scarface had probably inhaled less white powder.

“I´m sorry, ok?!” he said, sitting the child on the kitchen table and lowering his voice to a less threatening tone. “I didnt mean to yell, but bloddy hell, look at this.”

The cats had arrived to investigate the comotion and were both sitting by the kitchen door, staring at him.

“What are you two looking at?”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Cleaning up the mess was easy, just a flick of his wand and the powdery piles of flour were gone, and Teddy was once again as squicky clean as Evelyn had left him. Finding his onesie and getting it back on him, while he cried his head off and squirmed proved somewhat more difficult.

Severus was starting to get alarmed. Teddy was red in the face already. Talking to him seemed to make it worse somehow.

“Ok, I´ll put you back on your mat, with your toys and I´ll wait. I´m right here, just...get it all out, and then we talk. How about that? Does that work for you?”

Eventually, he got tired and the screaming turned into soft, calmer, whimpers.

“That´s good.” Severus sighed with relief, as he sat on the floor, next to Teddy´s playmat. “Now, we´re getting somewhere.”

“Nee...nee?” Teddy mumbled, still misty eyed.

“Does any of the adults around you actually understand what you say?” he smiled

“Neenee!!!” Teddy repeated, adamant, pointing at the phone on the end table by the couch.

“What of it?”

“Da!” he kept pointing.

“What? The phone?”

”Talk Neenee!”

“Ok, fine.”

Severus stretched his hand and pulled the phone down to the floor, carefully as to not to disconnect it.

“There, is this what you want?”

Teddy stared at him for a second, looking quite annoyed, then got the receiver in his hands and pushed it into Severus´s chest.

“Wan Neenee. Call Neenee.”

“Sorry, kid, I don´t follow. But I should call Evelyn, she´s taking way too long to come back...Thankf for the reminder.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Hey, Sev! Sorry I´m running late.”

“Where did you go pick Angela up? Namibia? It´s been hours.”

The moment Severus started talking on the phone, Teddy got up and tried to crawl all over him, reaching for the phone. Severus held him to his lap, gently pulling him away from his hand, but the boy wouldn´t stop squirming and screaming.

“It´s been barely over an hour. Sev. I dropped Angie off at her mother-in-law´s. She´s borrowing her car. Then I went to the store to pick up some things we needed for the house, since I was already out. I should be back in half an hour or so. How´s Teddy doing?”

“Yeah, you may need to get some flour, the little banshee went through all we had I the pantry.”

“He what?”

“I may have dozed off, then he got into the kitchen and made a bit of a mess. Now he´s having a sodding meltdown because I won´t give him the phone.”

“Put me on speaker.”

“There you go.”

“Teddy, sweetie. It´s Neenee.”

The baby squealed and bounced on Severus leg, recognising her voice. Severus tried to ignore the unexpectedly sharp pain teeny tiny toddler heels could inflict on human flesh and placed Teddy back on the playmat. Teddy immediadetly got back up, balacing himself on Severus´ knee.

“Wait? YOU are 'Neenee'? Where did that come from?”

“I never told you? When my sister was learning to talk, my parents tried to get her to call me 'Linnie' but all she got was 'NeeNee'. Every baby born in the family after that has called me NeeNee, so Andromeda thought it would be cute to teach Teddy to call me that. Isn´t that right, Teddy?”

Teddy let go of Severus leg to clap his hands, promptly falling on his bottom with a fit of laugher and repeated 'NeeNee' as if to confirm what she was saying.

“NeeNee, yuce!” he demanded

“Sev is going to give you your juice, ok? Sev, there´s...”

“Juice in the fridge, I know.”

“Teddy´s is strawberry one I made this morning. His sippy cup is right next to it. I left it in the fridge so the cats don´t get to it. There´s also a little tupperware with some peaches I left peeled and cut up if he wants to eat anything. But don´t let him have too much, he still hasn´t had lunch.”

“Got it.”

“I´ve got to go now, boys. Take care of each other till I get home, Bye.”

“Neenee go bye bye?” Teddy asked when the phone went silent.

“She´ll be back soon. Now, I´ll get you some juice. Just...stay there and try not to vandalize the room while I´m away. You think you can do that?”

Teddy answered with a stream of noises and raspberries.

“I´ll take that as a yes”

  
  


* * *

  
  


Feeling like a crisis had been averted, Severus went to the kitchen and diligently did as Evelyn had told him to, thankful that, at least, the boy was old enough to drink from his cup by himself. Half an hour give or take, she said. All he had to do was wait, and then he could finally hand the kid over to Evelyn.

Somebody seemed to have different plans, however.

He heard a loud thud. Or rather various, one after the other in rapid sequence.

Severus nearly stumbled onto himself to get back to the living room. Somehow Teddy had managed to bring down a whole pile of books from one of the highest shelves. They were all over the floor, all around Teddy as he stood there looking utterly beffudled. Godiva was sitting next to him looking quite confused herself, and Ciarán was back at his spot by the fireplace.

Severus scanned the mess, trying to understand what the devil had happened and then it hit him. A burst of involuntary magic. That was the only way the entire content of the top shelf could have come down like this.

The entire...content of the top...book...shelf. Heavy, leather bound books, Severus realized, to his horror.

“Book go down.” Teddy helpfully informed him, picking up a book awkwardly by the cover and holding it up to illustrate his point.

In a panic, Severus picked him up and sat him down on the couch to check for any sign that any of the books had fallen on him. Teddy kept on talking, or whatever it was that children that age did when they tried to get words out.

“Ok, fine, you don´t seem hurt...Merlin, how do you check a kid this young for a concussion?”

“eed towy?”

“We´ve been over the fact that I can´t understand a word you say, haven´t we?”

“TOWY!” Teddy fussed as Severus checked his head, looking for any bumps under the multicolored, changing hair.

“Here´s what we´re going to do, Mr Lupin. I´ll get you the bloody juice you wanted and we´re going to wait for Evelyn to come back, then SHE will deal with whatever it is that you want. I guess we more than established that I´m not fit to...what the...”

As he got up´and turned away from Teddy, Severus almost got hit on the face by a floating book.

“Precocious, eh, Lupin?” Severus smirked. Teddy babbled something he couldn´t quite get and raised his little arms to him.

“I suppose it was a stupid idea to leave you all alone. Twice. Point taken.”

Severus picked Teddy up and awkwardly propted him against his side, still mildly disturbed by how fragile and wobbly he felt in his arm, then went back to the kitchen to get the juice.

Teddy seemed happy enough to get his juice and be carried around like that, but the new arrangement posed another problem: now Severus couldn´t really put him down. Whenever he tried, the kid would screech.

“Guess I´m stuck with you wether I like it or not.”

So, like that, with Teddy glued to his side, he went about fixing himself a cup of tea.

It wasn´t the easiest task in the world to make tea with one hand, but since Nagini had done him the courtesy of destroying some of the ligaments in the other one, he had become much more skilled at doing everything single handedly.

“Well, I guess we´re all set now and...you need a nappychange. You could have warned me!”

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Sev, Teddy! I´m home...Jesus, what happened here?”

Evelyn looked at the room, then at Severus, then back at room, then back at Severus. There were books scattered about the floor, Teddy´s toys were all over the place. It looked like a tornado had tore down the place. Severus stood before her covered in flour from head to toe with Teddy perched on his hip, in his nappies.

“Neenee!” Teddy yelled and kicked, stretching his arms to her.

“What happened here?” she asked when Severus handed her the child with visible relief.

“You were wearing black when I left.” she smiled and tickled Teddy´s belly “And you were wearing...well, clothes!”

“Shit, I forgot to clean myself.”

“Severus, language!”

“What? He doesn´t know the difference.”

“Shit!” Teddy parroted, proudly.

“Yeah, precisely. He doesn´t know the difference. Wait a minute, what is this smell?”

“Your dear little cousin decided it would quite the joke to mark his territory all over me the way wolves do.”

“Oh, dear!” she started to laugh “You´ve been 'blessed'! How did this even happen?”

“While I was changing his nappy just now.”

“You...changed him?”

“Well, I wasn´t going to let him sit in his own waste till you came back. I may not like children, but I´m not a monster.”

“You never changed a nappy in your life...have you?”

“No. But one: I´m not an idiot and two: I have a wand. He just happens to have excellent aim”

“Do witch mothers change nappies with magic? That´s practical.”

“Nah, most of them do it the normal way... Some nonsense about bonding and whatnot. Well, he´s alive, I´m alive, the cats are of no help as usual. Now I´ll clean this mess and get rid of the smell.”

“See? I knew you had this under control.”

“No, you most definitely did not know that, Linz. Now if you excuse me, I´ll leave entertaining our guest to you, while I get clean.”

“Why don´t you just change into something else, something lighter. It´s a gorgeous day outside and it´s almost lunch time. We should get Teddy out of the house for a little while.”

“Evelyn, you know we can´t do that! If this boy starts switching hair colors in the middle of a restaurant we´ll cause a case of mass hysteria.”

“I know, that´s why I got him this.” she reached into one of her shopping bags and got a white little sun hat with a cutesy multicolored animal pattern. On her way to the supermarket, Evelyn had realized how awful it would be to waste such a sunny day by staying indoors. So she made a stop by the shopping mall on the way back.

“Really?”

“It´s sunny outside. We would have to put a hat on him regardless. I mean...the hair colour thing is the only thing he does, right?”

“For now, I suppose.”

“Then, it shouldn´t be an issue. I also got a more muggle looking change of clothes for him and some pull up nappies. I´m sure a have a picnic towel and a little themal bag somewhere, we can take him to the park after we have lunch.”

“Will it matter if I say no?”

“You can stay home if you want, but I´m going.

* * *

Why did he decide to tag along?

Maybe because Severus knew that whenever Evelyn said “you can stay if you want, but I´m going” what she really wanted was for him to go. And most of the times he did end up having a good time, actually. But whenever she told him she was going somewhere, it usually involved restaurants, museums or bars in...well..adult company. This was the first time it involved taking a child out of the house and being in spaces full of children.

If there was ever an occasion in which Severus should had taken her on the “you can stay” offer, it would have been this.

But no. He agreed just to please her, and out of the house they went. Severus never imagined how much of a logistics nightmare it was to get a child out of the house. Bag of nappies, a thermal bag for the kid´s juice, water and snacks, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, toys, a car seat and a baby carriage (both borrowed from Angela´s neighbour, which made Severus think Angela and Evelyn had planned all this for a while), extra change of clothes in case Teddy got any dirt on him...Why did people reproduce, Severus wondered.

As they sat in one of the tables on the external part of a, he shuddered, family restaurant, he started to wonder how upset Evelyn would be if he just gave up and went back home.  
  
“Very upset, Severus” he thought to himself “She would be very upset. Now sit down and act like an adult.”

It was an early Saturday afternooon and seemingly every family with young children in town was out and about. Every single table around them was occupied by them. At least they didn´t stand out from the crowd.

The waitress came over and handed them their menus. Teddy almost immediately started to fuss in his carriage.

“What is it, darling?” Evelyn cooed.

“Maybe it´s the noise. I know it´s driving **me** bonkers.”

“Neenee towy!” Teddy pleaded, reaching for the menu on her hand.

“He´s been saying that all day.” Severus noticed.

“I know, but I have no idea what he wants.”

“Well, if you don´t...”

Teddy kept reaching for the menu and getting even fussier. Evelyn put her menu on the other side of the table where he couldn´t reach it.

It almost immediately started to float.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Severus grumbled, catching the menu midair before the table next to them noticed.

“Towy! Book!” Teddy demanded.

“This is not a book, love...wait. That´s why he dropped your books, Sev. He wants a story.”

“How do you know?”

“I don´t, it´s just an educated guess. We´ll take him to the bookstore after this.”

  
  


* * *

  
  


If Severus thought the restaurant had been bad...

Once at they arrived at the book store, Evelyn immediately marched to the children´s section, where Severus had to dodge countless running brats as they took Teddy to the smaller area reserved for babies and toddlers.

Evelyn put Teddy down and let him explore.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Severus told her

“Of course I am. Look at him. He´s just fine;”

Severus had to agree. That was the calmest he´d seen the boy the whole day. Evelyn followed him close, helping him open the books and pick one for himself. A couple mothers with their own toddlers joined her and, amazingly, it didn´t seem like anyone noticed there was something unusual about Teddy. Neither did the employee who came over to help them. Maybe Evelyn was right after all.

Severus took a step back and tried to stay out of the way.

Teddy finally settled on a pop up book of fairy tales. Evelyn grabbed a couple others and sat on one of the brightly colored armchairs with Teddy on her lap. She looked over at Severus and called him to join them. Severus smiled, but decided not to. He mouthed a brief 'I´ll be here' to which she shrugged, and proceeded to read to Teddy.

Teddy started dozing off in a matter of moments.

“Sir?”

Severus turned and saw the same store employee that had been talking to Evelyn, standing right behind him. She smiled and handed him a book.

“Your wife just picked the first volume of the pop up Perrault tales, and she asked me to get her the second one. Your little boy is going to love it, it´s our best seller this month.You get a discount if you buy the two together.”

“Oh, she´s not...I mean he´s not...I mean...thank you.”

Across the room from him, Teddy was sleeping soundly in Evelyn´s arms as she held him close to her chest.

Severus shifted on his feet, uneasy, not quite sure what he was supposed to be doing.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Andromeda was right.” Severus told her quietly as they lay side by side on the picnic towel she had brought. Teddy sitting between them, busy playing with his toys. They had found a nice place under the threes, secluded enough that they could take Teddy´s hat off. Now his hair was a soft shade of pastel pink.

It was late afternoon and the sun came through the branches and leaves above them drawing a lace patter of light and shadow all over the grass. The breeze carried the ruffle of the leaves and the laughs of the visitors all around the park

“Right about what...?” Evelyn asked. She turned to her side, supporting her weight on her elbow and looked down at him, a stray lock of brown hair falling on her face.

“You´d be an excellent mother. I mean look at him. Doesn´t even look like the same boy who was screaming bloody murder in the living room this morning.”

“You did just fine taking care of him, though. I just happen have been around more babies than you have that´s all.”

“I suppose babies are not as bad as I expected. It´s when children start growing personalities that I start having a problem with them.”

“Gee, I don´t know, Sev. In my experience they have their own little personalities right off the gate. We just can´t tell it as much at first because they can´t speak or do things on their own. But they do.”

“I suppose.”

“You did great today.”

“Did I? I let him out of my sight twice, I yelled at him, I let him drop a hole stack of books onto himself...It´s a miracle he didn´t get hurt. And you were gone for just a little over an hour.”

“Yep, that´s taking care of a child...They´re not called 'terrible two´s' for nothing. I should ask my sister to tell you some stories. Or better yet, my mother...”

“If there´s one conversation I´d love to have with your mother...” he sniggered.

“Thank you, by the way.”

“What for?”

“I know you didn´t want to do this...”

“Evelyn...”

“I could tell, Sev...Every time we were at Andromeda´s house...”

“I just don´t like children.”

“Teddy isn´t just any child, though...Neither was Harry...”

“Well, yes, I admit. I wasn´t all that keen on spending quality time with Lupin´s offspring, after having to tolerate James´insolent spawn for years...I mean...”

“Teddy is not Remus. Just like Harry is not James...or Lily.”

“I know. They´re dead. All of them. And I´m not.”

“Sev...”

“You know, if you could go back in time and find me when I was 15 and tell him, that 15 year old boy, that decades down the line all four of the Marauders would be dead and buried, and I´d outlive them... I can tell you this, 15 year old Severus Snape would have been ecstatic.”

“How about 40 year old Severus Snape? How does he feel about it?”

“I don´t quite know...It feels strange...to be the last one. The way it happened. I never meant for Potter to...Or Lupin. Even Sirius, looking back I don´t think I would have done anything to him if I had the chance. But now, it doesn´t matter, because they´re all gone...Lily´s son is out there all grown, after all. Having Andromeda invite us over to visit Teddy. I feel...out of place. Like I shouldn´t be here.”

“That sounds a lot like...guilt.”

“Something like that, maybe”

“And that´s ok to feel like that. To feel guilt about things you shouldn´t. It happens.”

“Lupin wasn´t the worst of them, you know? He didn´t have to...It´s not fair. Nothing that happened was fair. To anybody. I was looking at you today, reading to Teddy at the bookstore...and it got me thinking...about Andromeda.”

“What about her?”

“I mean...Teddy is all she has. She was so happy to meet you. To know you have a sister, and your nieces. Of course she was, she has nobody else left. Teddy has no other family left.”

“He´s got Harry. Hermione. The Weasleys. Now he´s got me, my family back in Ireland when he gets to meet them...and you.”

“No, not me.”

“Why not?”

“I´m not going to act as if life is all fine and dandy and I can be 'dear uncle Sev ' to Lupin´s kid. Or to Harry. I can´t”

“You called him Harry.”

“That´s his name.”

“I know... But you didn´t call him 'Potter' this time.”

“Whatever you say. Look, Lynz, you are Teddy´s family. You and Andromeda are cousins, that´s fine.”

“In that case, you are his family too.”

“No. It´s not that easy.”

“It´s exactly this easy, love. If you weren´t we wouldn´t be here in this park. We live tegether, we´re sharing a life. You are his family because you are my family. That´s all there is to it. Does it matter what´s in the past?”

“It matters if doesn´t go away.” he stared up at the branches dancing above him, at the cloudless sky peeking trhough the leaves “If you can´t stop thinking about it.”

“Thinking about it doesn´t change things much, I´m afraid. Teddy and Harry are here now, and you´re part of their lives regardless. You can try and get along with them...If you feel like it helps.”

“I´m not exactly the kind of presence a child needs in their life.”

“You don´t know that.”

“I just don´t want to be in the way if you want to...”

“You know what I want, Sev?”

Severus tore his eyes away from the endless blue above him and looked at her, at her smile framed by freckles, at the liquid gold of her brown eyes as the sun shone on them.

“Right now, what I want... is to enjoy the rest of the afternoon right here, with you and Teddy. The rest we can figure out later. We have time.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

  
  


  
  


  
  



End file.
